Be Careful What You Wish For
by The Universal Storyteller
Summary: This will be a multiple-crossover or multiple-fusion story, and perhaps the first story in a new series. Most, if not all, romantic M/F pairings to be decided later. Please read, enjoy, and review, if you so choose, then, people. TUS out.
1. Chapter One: Altered Destinies?

What if certain things were considerably different right after the demise of Queen Beryl and right after the Dark Kingdom's undesired banishment to their home Dimension anywhere else in the Universe? And what if there were certain other people who also arose to fight evil, besides those who had fought evil before? This fan fictional work will surely explore certain non-canonical possibilities that then might have somehow actually come to pass right after the defeat of the Dark Kingdom at the end of Sailor Moon Classic. It definitely will involve characters from at least three anime/manga series, at least, if not more. And possibly certain other characters from various non-anime/non-manga series or books, as well. You all will have to guess the potential pairings as various characters appear in the story, of course.

I will, however, say that three of the Japanese-originated series that most certainly will be fused together in this story, and possibly certain other sufficiently-related ones, will be _Sailor Moon_, _Love Hina_, and _Inuyasha_. Other than that, you all will just have to wait and see just what other crossovers will be part of this story and/or certain sufficiently-related ones. For the purposes of this particular story, at least, if not others as well, I am setting the starting date of this story in early June 1991, even for the various non-_Sailor Moon_-related characters. And for those purposes, at least, the Sailor Senshi will have knowingly been active as such, at least as of September 1990, at the very earliest.

There certainly will be no Outer Senshi, except for maybe Sailor Pluto, and also no Doom Tree Arc. At least not in this particular story here, anyway. But it still will take place mainly in a _Sailor Moon_-type setting, wherever and whenever possible, just the same. In terms of _Love Hina_, consider this to start right after Episode 4 of its anime version, perhaps. And in terms of _Inuyasha_, consider this story to start right after Kagome Higurashi shatters the Shikon no Tama with her spirit-infused arrow in Episode 2 (?) of its anime version, perhaps. Other crossed-over/fused series will pick up as needed from certain major points in their sufficiently-related timelines, once characters from them appear in this story or sufficiently-related ones. There most certainly will be at least some differences in the more familiar canon timelines and/or in certain canon characters for each crossed-over/fused series. But I do not want to share them all here just yet, for all the obvious reasons, people.

I most certainly will be beginning this particular story right after the Character List below, for that matter, though. And before I forget, all non-original characters are the property of their respective owners, et cetera. I most certainly will make absolutely no profit whatsoever here and now. At least not in terms of profiting in a financial aspect, if not in any other way whatsoever as well, from this fan fiction, so it would be rather pointless indeed to sue me here, of course.

* * *

Currently-Present Character List (Not Necessarily in Order of First Appearance):

_

* * *

Sailor Moon_:

* * *

Naru Osaka

Usagi Tsukino

Ami Mizuno

_

* * *

Love Hina_:

* * *

Keitaro Urashima

Naru Narusegawa

Shinobu Maehara

Mitsune Konno

Motoko Aoyama

Kaolla Su

Aunt Haruka

_

* * *

Inuyasha_:

* * *

Ginkuro Akai (Inuyasha, fyi)

Kagome Higurashi

Sota Higurashi

Kaede

Kikyo

Kagome's Mama

Kagome's Grandpa

_

* * *

Chapter One: Altered Destinies?_

0630 Hours

June 10, 1991

Keitaro's Room

Keitaro Urashima was dressing for the day ahead when he accidentally knocked some letters from certain friends of his Aunt off a bedside table. He had only received them the day before at the usual mail-gathering time for him, but had forgotten them just before going to bed the night before. No thanks to a rather unexpected triple-team-up strike by Kaolla Su, Motoko Aoyama, and Naru Narusegawa, as he was then exiting the women's hot springs area for the night after having just done some rather major clean-up work in it by about 10:30 pm.

* * *

Flashback:

* * *

They all had come across him then with him still carrying a mop and bucket in his hands. Su had secretly snuck a somewhat new bar of soap directly into his path, seconds after they saw each other there without anyone else knowing this early enough to stop Su's prank quite well enough. Of course, Keitaro stepped on the bar of soap and went skidding forward on it. Skidding forward right into Naru and Motoko, who were each carrying some food and drink over to a bench for Su, themselves, Shinobu Maehara, and Mitsune Konno, in fact, so that they could all just look at the stars for at least a little while before bed.

"Hey, Baka! What did you do that for?" yelled Naru, once she and Motoko both realized that several cups of assorted juices had just drenched themselves and Su quite considerably, and that several pastries of assorted types were also sticking somewhat securely to certain heads and/or articles of clothing they were then wearing or carrying in their hands.

"Not my fault, Narusegawa-san! Please don't get after me now!"

"Prepare to die, Urashima-san! You did this on purpose! Zitoshi Kugapu Zanzashu, Strike!" exclaimed Motoko, of course. She didn't yet know what it meant, but those words still came to her lips here, just the same.

"Any last requests, before we send you to oblivion?" asked Naru, once Keitaro was frozen in place for some yet-unknown reason here for a time.

"Don't send me too far away, for if you do, you'll have to do all the work here yourselves until I return, you know!"

"Send him into orbit, Naru! I really want to see just how far he can fly, and just how fast he can!" said Su, as she suddenly smacked a new yet-untested device of some yet-unknown sort on his back just where nobody else then present could see it quite well enough.

Naru thought about it, and then said, as Mitsune and Shinobu were just entering the hot springs area, "Stand clear, girls! It's time to send this horned toad flying!" Motoko was readying another more intensive attack against Keitaro, and Su was now fiddling with a strange device she'd just retrieved from goodness-knows-where in order to control still another strange device of some sort.

"Naru-senpai, must you really do this now?" asked Shinobu, rather timidly, of course.

"I have to protect you all, it now seems to me, from this horny man's rather slimy habits. Even you, Shinobu-chan."

"But it's not fair!" cried Shinobu, for she really liked Keitaro Urashima, and generally had ever since first meeting him not too long before.

"I do what I must, Shinobu-chan, for the good of everyone here, I think," said Naru, as she, Motoko, and Su then simultaneously launched Keitaro into the air, as was quite often their wont in their lives. Especially for Naru and Motoko, in fact. Keitaro went flying around the Earth so that he orbited it three times. And as soon as he was high enough in the air, the device that Su had just smacked onto his back suddenly became quite active and enveloped him in a mostly invisible environmental suit of some yet-unknown sort. Keitaro eventually sailed through a young girl's then-open window, landing on her bedroom floor mostly unconscious when he did so, in the Azabu Juuban area of Tokyo, Japan. The girl that the mostly-darkened room actually belonged to was nowhere to be seen when he landed there, for that matter.

Eventually, Keitaro stirred, but only after said girl had found him lying on her bedroom floor still somewhat unconscious, and had discovered the strange device on his back, well enough. Said girl checked him out briefly, even as she tried to turn on most of the lights in her bedroom just as her mother's voice also began heading her direction. She soon realized that he wasn't evidently from anywhere she knew of at all in Azabu Juuban once she somehow discovered his flopped-open wallet well enough. And a business card in it said, as best as she could then tell here, "Keitaro Urashima, Hinata Dorm Manager."

"Where did you go, my little Princess? Mama's looking for you now! She has a present for you straight from Paris, in fact." The girl panicked, and began trying to think of a way to deal with the fact that a strange young man was now lying rather unconscious in her mostly-darkened bedroom for some yet-unknown reason here.

"I'll get it later, Mother. I don't feel particularly well at the moment," said the girl in question. "I went to the arcade and ate something that's not agreeing with me too much right now. Please let me be for the rest of the night, Mother!"

"Are you sure, Precious?" asked her still-unseen and somewhat skeptical mother here.

"Yes, Mother, I am. I'll see you tomorrow morning, then."

"Very well, then, Princess, I will."

Her mother's voice soon turned away from where it had been heading, and instead to another room of the residence where the girl and her family then lived with each other in Tokyo's area of Azabu Juuban. When the girl in question realized that she'd not be disturbed by her parents and others without her knowledge or consent for the rest of the night, she then took another look at the Hinata Dorm's manager for at least a little while. Or at least as best as she could then do, for the majority of the lights in her bedroom were still not functioning properly for some yet-unknown reason.

Keitaro had landed on two bounces on the girl's floor, losing his glasses on the first bounce near her still-open window. His wallet and a few other items fell out of his pockets on the second bounce, about five or so seconds before he smacked down on the girl's bedroom floor quite hard indeed, from what she could then gather here well enough.

The girl in question was now wearing a cream-colored sleeveless blouse over a pair of navy blue slacks and a pair of black closed-toe sandals. She also had a green and gold-trimmed bow in her short and wavy reddish-brown hair. A look of considerable concern was on her face as she took his current appearance into view here in her eighty-percent darkened bedroom.

At the moment, Keitaro was wearing a light orange jacket over a tan short-sleeved shirt, a pair of gray work shorts, and a pair of flip-flops like many people might often wear in showers. His glasses were resting somewhat askew near her window, several feet away. And assorted items of his were strewn out between where his glasses were and where he was in her room. The girl soon briefly left her room, and went to a nearby restroom to wet a few washcloths in the hopes that the cool water on those washcloths would somehow help to bring him around here well enough.

Two minutes, at most, later, the girl began wiping off his face and neck with those cloths or placing them on his forehead, as she saw fit. She also wondered, "How did you get here, and where is Hinata Dorm?"

Yet, Keitaro still didn't regain full consciousness here, for the quite sudden combination strike against him by Naru Narusegawa, Motoko Aoyama, and Kaolla Su had been quite powerful indeed in its force here. Not just because of any of the girls alone, but also because of their triple-team attack on him some time before. When the girl realized this well enough, she realized that he had to be helped by someone else entirely. So she decided to call one of her dearest friends up, even though it was now rapidly approaching 11 at night.

She soon moved to her phone, and called her rather close friend Usagi Tsukino. A few minutes later, she helped Usagi and another girl by the name of Ami Mizuno through her window, once they had secretly made their ways to it through non-conventional means of some sort. Usagi said, "We're here, Naru-chan. I hope you didn't just call me out of my bed for no good reason just a little while ago."

"No, I most certainly did not. I have someone in my room who needs more help than I can currently give them, it seems. And they're mostly unconscious as well, for that matter, Usagi-chan."

"Why are the lights mostly out in your room, Osaka-san?"

"I don't know for sure, but I suspect it may have something to do with the strange device that seems to be on his back now, Mizuno-san, for some yet-unknown reason."

"Where is this person you're speaking of, then, Naru-chan?"

Naru Osaka then guided Usagi and Ami right to where Keitaro was still lying on her floor here mostly unconscious. As soon as they were close enough to him here, the three girls began to all check him out much more, of course. Especially Ami, once she barely heard him say, "Did you really have to send me so far, Aoyama, Narusegawa, and Su?"

"Who are Aoyama, Narusegawa, and Su, Osaka-san?"

"I have no idea just yet, Mizuno-san. Must be some people he's acquainted with, as far as I can tell here well enough." Ami's hands soon found the rather strange device on Keitaro's back, and tried to get it off his back here well enough, but they were still somewhat unable to do that now.

"I wonder who put this on his back, Osaka-san."

Naru reached over to where the device was, while also suddenly grabbing one hand of both Usagi and Ami here, on Keitaro's back. As the three of them unexpectedly all touched it at the same time, a few seconds later, Naru suddenly said, in a yet-unknown tongue of some sort, "Keitaro, Ikakuta Sanaku Choshiru."

Keitaro woke up quite fully no more than ten seconds later, and asked, when he eventually recognized he wasn't where he then expected to be quite well enough, "Where am I, and who are you?" As he spoke, all the lights in Naru's room suddenly flashed on quite brightly indeed.

Naru said, as she and Ami helped Keitaro sit up here well enough, "Urashima-san, you are now in my bedroom, for some yet-unknown reason. I am Naru Osaka, and these are classmates of mine, Usagi Tsukino and Ami Mizuno." Ami soon saw where Keitaro's glasses had landed, and had Usagi start picking up all of the things that had fallen out of his pockets when he'd bounced through Naru's window to her bedroom floor. Even as she herself then picked up his glasses and quietly returned them to him as needed here well enough.

"Who's who, Osaka-san?" asked Keitaro, as he put his glasses back on his face where needed, of course.

"Tsukino-san is the blonde girl with long pigtails and twin buns for her hairstyle. Mizuno-san is the one with short bluish-black hair here."

"Have we ever met before, Mizuno-san? You look at least a little bit like one of my friends by the name of Shinobu Maehara, by the way."

"No, I don't think so, Urashima-san. At least I don't recall ever meeting you before, anyway. Perhaps you can tell us how you got here, and what this device on your back is."

Keitaro reached back and felt where it was, with Ami's help, and said, "It's most likely one of Su's crazy inventions here. Oh, my! Knowing her, she probably put a tracker on it of some sort. If she did, then a bunch of people are likely to show up here fairly soon, if I'm not too mistaken here."

"And if they find you here, then what?" asked Usagi, not yet understanding well enough here, for the obvious reasons.

"I'll be in even more trouble with them, Tsukino-san."

"Why is that, if I might ask, Urashima-san?"

"Because, young ladies, I am the manager of an all-girls' dormitory, thanks to my Grandma Hina. If certain people find me here, somehow, they'll get after me again, no doubt."

"What?" all three girls suddenly exclaimed, while also trying to keep their voices down enough so that Naru's parents and/or siblings wouldn't hear them conversing with Keitaro here, of course.

"That's right. Two of them really don't like the fact that I'm the manager there, but Grandma Hina turned the dormitory over to me just before she went off on a round-the-world trip. And they quite often get after me every chance they get, especially when I trip over certain things, or land on top of them for some accidental reason, for instance, Osaka-tachi."

"How many girls are at this dormitory with you now, Urashima-san?"

"Well, let's see here, Tsukino-san. Kaolla Su is one of those girls. Naru Narusegawa is a second one. Motoko Aoyama is a third one. Mitsune Konno, a fourth one. And Shinobu Maehara, a fifth one. Aunt Haruka told me that there may eventually be still another, after she related a dream that she had last night to me this morning."

"I see. And why do two of them not want you there?" asked Ami.

"I'm a male, simply put. And just because of that fact, they really don't want me to often be around the Dormitory if I don't absolutely have to be. But I'm still going to be their Dorm's manager, whether they might like it or not, Mizuno-san."

Just then, a mixture of assorted voices began reaching his ears here somehow quite well enough. "Oh, great! I've got to get out of here before they find me with you three well enough."

"And just how do you plan on doing that, Urashima-san?" asked Naru.

"I really don't know, Osaka-san. But if I still have this device on, they'll find me for sure, no matter where I'm at."

Naru said, all of a sudden, as she looked at the strange device for a few moments, "Let me try something, if I may, Urashima-san."

"What do I have to lose, Osaka-san? Do what you think you must, then."

"Very well, then, let's see if we can get this off. Usagi, place your hand near the left edge of it as we're facing it. Mizuno-san, you should touch the right side of it. And I'll take the middle."

The three girls helped him stand, so that they could do as Naru thought they should with him here and now. With that done, Naru led them in touching that device of some yet-unknown sort, and the three girls suddenly found themselves saying with almost one voice, "Matashu Notaruki Satosaimu, Hinata Yobumo." The device broke apart, and fell into several pieces near his feet. Ami picked it up, and began examining it, piece by piece.

"They just lost the signal to that device, Mizuno-san," said Keitaro, as soon as Ami looked at him yet again in Naru's bedroom.

"How do you know?"

"She's actually smacked several similar enough devices to this one on my back before. And she always loses contact whenever they're broken quite well enough somehow. They'll all be hunting for me now, though, seeing as they've all tracked me at least to Azabu Juuban here, it seems. I really do need to get to the nearest train station or something, I think, in order to get back to the Dorm before they all find me here well enough. I've got a long way to go, and I don't want you three involved any more than you have to be." He suddenly showed the three of them five pictures of different Hinata Dorm residents, starting with one of Naru. "Beware of Naru and Motoko. They are quite a handful to deal with, more often than not, when they're angry with me for some reason. Whether justified or not, they often are. Mitsune spends much of her time gambling or drinking booze, Su is almost always building something, and Shinobu is quite the cook."

"Well, how about you go out the window that you rather unexpectedly entered my room through, then, Urashima-san?" asked Naru.

"I suppose I could, but that still doesn't get me to the train station, you know, Osaka-san."

"I can't leave, but perhaps my classmates could bring you there, just the same, Urashima-san."

Keitaro thought about this rather briefly here, before finally saying, "I suppose you're right, Osaka-san. Let's go, then, Tsukino-tachi."

About two minutes later, then, Keitaro, Usagi, and Ami exited Naru's bedroom through the same window he'd earlier come through rather unintentionally indeed. Naru then locked it quite securely behind them all, once they were all out of it well enough. That done, she soon donned a pair of orange and light green pajamas and climbed into bed here.

Ten minutes later, at most, Keitaro was already on the way back to the Hinata Dorm. An hour after that, at most, he was again in his room, just minutes ahead of the tenants' fruitless return to the Dorm's grounds here, for that matter. They all soon headed to their respective rooms and went right to sleep in their beds, of course.

* * *

End of Flashback:

* * *

Keitaro soon saw those letters on the floor near his bed, after buttoning the last button on a clean white dress shirt he'd just donned. He picked them up, seconds later, and began reading his mail for a while, even as he eventually made his way to the Dorm's dining room area for breakfast. This continued for a little while, at least, before Su suddenly jumped on his back in a hallway near that area of the Dorm. Su was currently invisible as she jumped on his back, but the evidence of her presence still registered in Keitaro's brain when he suddenly caught a whiff of bananas in the air.

Su then held her hands over his eyes, and he tried to shake her off him, but was unable to do so well enough before he crashed rather unintentionally into Naru as she was also making her way to the dining room area for breakfast. Naru didn't see Su, of course. So she said, as Keitaro continued to try to get Su off him well enough, with somewhat-flailing arms and hands, which also got themselves caught on Naru's belt for an orange skirt she was then wearing, "Keitaro, you're asking for it again, it seems."

"What, Narusegawa? I'm not doing anything except trying to get Su off my back now and go to get myself some breakfast before I tell you all something rather important indeed."

"Likely story. Where is Su, really?"

"On my back, I say. She's got her hands over my eyes. She's invisible. But not undetectable. Can't you smell any bananas in the air right now?"

"Keitaro," said Naru, in a rather skeptical, and somewhat threatening tone, "you had better not be trying to pull any tricks on me here, or else you'd best prepare yourself for another flight."

"Just smell the air, Narusegawa. Don't you smell anything out of place now?"

Naru sniffed the air for a few seconds, and said, "Barely. I smell smoke from one of Su's inventions, but that's normal for her. Bananas, I smell a bit of them, but not fresh ones, for once. She often smells like bananas, though. What do bananas have to do with anything here?"

"Don't hit me, and you'll find out. Follow the smell, and see if you can find her well enough. If you find her well enough, there should be a device of some sort hanging on her waist just below the hem of her uniform blouse, at about belt-level."

"What kind of device?"

"A ringed planet-like device on a chain around her waist. Look for a small axis on the device and push in both ends of that axis as far as you can. That should allow you to see her well enough then, I think. And that should keep her sufficiently near us to prevent an escape by her here."

"For your sake, at least, I hope that you're not trying to trick me, Keitaro," said Naru.

"I'm not. Just do it soon, before my hands do something that they don't actually want to do, please, Naru."

Naru followed the smell, sniffing all around Keitaro, even around his legs, just as Motoko and Mitsune walked into the area of where Naru, Keitaro, and Su now were. Both Motoko and Mitsune were rather surprised to see her sniffing all around Keitaro, and couldn't believe what they were apparently seeing here very well, if at all.

As Keitaro submitted to Naru's sniffing around himself here, even around his legs, he silently prayed that if Motoko was anywhere nearby, she wouldn't get the wrong idea and hit him again for no good reason. Knowing that was rather unlikely, at best, he still hoped that she wouldn't do so, just the same, of course.

Motoko and Mitsune watched Naru around Keitaro here, and wondered, "What in the blazes is that manager of ours doing now, or making Naru do now?" Naru was now quite near certain parts of Keitaro, and running her hands up his legs, in hopes of finding just where the smell of not-fresh bananas was then coming from here.

Eventually, Mitsune could hold in her amusement here no longer, and said, "Are you smelling something delicious, Naru-chan?"

Naru shot up immediately from where her head was then near Keitaro's waist, quite naturally enough blushing very deep red as she did so, and an elbow rather unexpectedly shot into Keitaro's groin area on his right side. Quite naturally enough, Keitaro let out one rather loud "YOWWWWCH," when her now-flailing left elbow hit him there not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, but five times, rather unconsciously indeed. It was at this particular point in time when Shinobu entered, about to let everyone know that breakfast was now ready for consumption by them all. And all the girls who were then present almost immediately saw Keitaro reaching for certain personal areas of his, obviously in rather great pain. Even the still-invisible Su, by the way.

Naru was stunned, to say the least, but Shinobu was even more so, when they saw Keitaro trying to avoid even more still-unintentional hits from Naru's now-flailing elbows and other parts of hers on various parts of his own body. "This just isn't fair! Why must I have to take hits like this, even if it's not intentional on anyone else's part here?" As he said those things, Shinobu quite suddenly broke into tears, quite naturally enough, as was quite often her wont, whenever Keitaro was hit by certain other residents of the Dorm. She only barely avoided fainting here, but still let her tears fall here, just the same, as she crumpled to the floor near the dining room area door.

Naru moved closer to him, yet again. And he, quite naturally indeed, then tried to shrink back and somehow manage to keep from actually getting hit any more at all by her here. Even if it wasn't currently intentional on Naru's part here. "Mitsune, what did you just do that for?" asked Naru. But eventually, he ended up against a nearby interior wall of the Dorm, with nowhere else to go at the current time quite well enough.

"You looked like you were rather enjoying sniffing around Keitaro here. What were you just looking for, if I might ask, Naru-chan?"

"Su, and some not-fresh bananas, it seems."

"Oh, I see. What's she have to do with anything?"

"Keitaro said she's on his back and invisible, but not undetectable," said Naru, as she suddenly reached behind Keitaro as he was currently cowering against the applicable wall in the Dorm. Her hand unexpectedly found a device such as Keitaro had just described, just where he'd said it might be, and she then did as he'd directed her to do once she'd found it. Su became almost immediately visible to everyone else in the area, and tried to get away from everyone when she did so. Naru said, "Seems you're right for once here, Keitaro. You won't go flying this time, obviously enough."

Shinobu breathed a sigh of great relief, and then said something that surprised everyone else, but especially Su, here. "Su, you are so not going to get that banana creme pie you wanted me to make for at least a week, if not even longer, now. Don't bother asking me to make you anything else sufficiently special either for at least that long. Keitaro doesn't deserve your mistreatment of him, for that matter."

Shinobu then set down her cooking spoon that was now in her hand on top of a pitcher of grape juice, and proceeded to walk over to Su here. She then snagged Su's nearest arm rather roughly, and slung her over her shoulder. That done, Shinobu rather unexpectedly went out to the hot springs area, and carried Su over to the side of it to at least some degree. Then she tossed Su up in the air, before swinging her right leg first back briefly, and waiting for Su to come down far enough for her to kick Su's behind right into the air several times, and then into the hot springs area.

As everyone else watched, in rather stunned silence, of course, Shinobu waited briefly for Su to come down again. When Su did so at least well enough here, Shinobu then kicked her into the air eight times straight just as high as she could with each of those kicks. After the eighth such kick, Su came down just one more time, whereupon Shinobu kicked her one last time, sending her straight into the women's bath area without another word or look in her direction at the present time. With that done, Shinobu and the others besides Su went inside to have their breakfasts with each other. Su remained in the women's bath fully dressed for several long minutes, and quite naturally enough, quite stunned by Shinobu's rather uncharacteristic pounding of her here, before finally returning briefly to her own room to change into a dry school uniform set of hers.

By the time Su eventually returned to the Dorm's dining room area, then, everyone else was no longer anywhere at all on the Dorm's grounds. And there was nothing left for food or drink from the items that Shinobu had just made for everyone's breakfast here this morning, as well. Not only that, but Shinobu had even, somehow, actually put Su-proof locks on the refrigerator and on the nearby cabinets and stove, due to the fact that she was now quite steamed at Su here, of course. So Su soon realized that her mistreatment of Keitaro would cause her to not have anything to eat or drink at least until she found other friends of hers anywhere else in the local area of the Dorm, most likely. It was a very unhappy Su who then left the Dorm's grounds to do whatever might actually cross her mind to do for the rest of the daylight hours on June 10, 1991.

* * *

0900 Hours

June 10, 1991

Higurashi Family Living Room

Kagome Higurashi was sitting on a couch reading a book when her mother came in and asked her, "What are your plans for the day, if I might ask, Kagome?" [AN: Of course you all know what she normally looks like, most likely, so I won't describe her appearance here and now.]

"I was thinking of going shopping at one of the local malls for a while with a few of my friends, if I might. Supposing a certain young man doesn't object too much, of course." Kagome smiled briefly at her mother, while she also set her book on her right knee somewhat temporarily.

"Are you talking about Ginkuro, Kagome?" asked a woman who appeared to be in her forties, more or less, at the current time. [AN: You know what she normally looks like too, I'm sure.]

"Yeah, I am. He seems to want me to help him hunt for certain jewels for his girlfriend Kikyo Musashi, believe it or not. We both lost them when I accidentally hit them as I was then practicing some archery with a bow and several arrows a while back. And now he says that I have to help him find those jewels that we lost when I hit them with an arrow at archery practice some time ago, because of that simple fact." Actually, they were shards of the Shikon no Tama, but Kagome's mother didn't really need to know that here yet, if ever.

"Because you both lost them, I take it."

"Yes, and they're very valuable jewels that belong to his girlfriend's family, it seems."

"Oh, my. Then I suppose you must do what you can to find those jewels you just told me of here, of course, Kagome."

"Yes, I know, but they're most likely going to be quite hard to find, I think, if at all. Many will perhaps be searching for them as well, considering just how valuable they might be, I think."

"I see. Well, I hope you find them all soon, so that you can do whatever you want with your life in the future, of course. He's not going to go away from it until all the jewels are found, if I get your drift well enough?"

"No, I don't think so. And I don't particularly like his girlfriend, in truth. But because I did what I did, even though it was a total accident, it now seems that I actually have to try to help him find those jewels wherever and whenever they can possibly be found at all, Mama."

"Well, in that case, please be as careful as you can, of course, Kagome."

"Obviously, Mother. Obviously, of course. Well, I suppose I had best take this book back to my room and get out of here before Red Boy shows up here quite well enough." Red Boy was Kagome's nickname for Ginkuro, due to the fact that he was almost never seen without a red jacket or vest and/or hakama-style trousers on his person, even during situations which might normally call for much more formal attire in his life. Ginkuro was a young man apparently about 18 or so years old, and who was going to be a high school senior the following September. They had not yet attended school with each other, but had only recently met each other in a city park not very far from where Kagome now lived with her family in Tokyo, Japan.

Ginkuro Akai was the second son of his parents, with an older brother that Kagome didn't yet know about. For she didn't yet know all that much about him, due to the simple fact that she'd only just met him in her life, under rather unexpected circumstances indeed. There was still much that she didn't yet know of him, and Ginkuro wanted to keep it that way for as long as he could, in fact.

Ginkuro had mostly black waist-length hair with at least a few strands of silver in it. He normally wore it in a cape-like style, completely unbound, whenever he could, even if others didn't really want him to do just that. Many teachers he'd known in his life had tried to get him to cut his hair, or at least asked him to put it up somehow, but he was quite a rebel to such ideas. He ultimately said, once upon a time, after one such teacher had nagged him about his hair too much at a certain time, "Nobody except my mother or my girlfriend touches my hair if I don't want them to. Got it?" As if to further emphasize that particular statement of his, he rather suddenly whipped out several weapons of assorted sizes, shapes, and appearances, much to the surprise of that very same teacher and many others then near them, and brandished them all quite quickly and quite well indeed. He had no further hair-related complaints from any teacher in any number of schools that he'd been in ever since the aforementioned incident, for that matter, of course.

Nobody outside his extended family or his girlfriend's extended family had messed needlessly with him since that time. At least not until he actually met Kagome, anyway. They were almost instantly at loggerheads with each other, once they'd first met each other in that city park, in fact.

Two days later, in another time and place, then, Kagome had shattered the Shikon no Tama after hitting it with an arrow as a rather strange crow began flying away from her and others with that very same jewel. The Shikon no Tama had then shattered into numerous shards almost immediately after the arrow hit it well enough. Needless to say, Ginkuro was none too pleased, of course. And said so, in very short order, in fact.

The following day, just before they had returned to modern-day Tokyo, a somewhat older woman, in the garb of a Shinto priestess who went by the name of Kaede, rather unexpectedly indeed gave Kagome a beaded necklace of some sort. She soon told Kagome to place it as best as she could around Ginkuro's neck. And whenever he got rather mad at her, to say a certain word in order to activate the various beads on that yet-unfamiliar necklace. Kagome didn't understand just yet what she'd meant, but still considered what Kaede had just said to her then. At least in terms of Ginkuro and his new necklace, even as she had placed it around Ginkuro's neck before he could stop her well enough here, anyway.

It was while they were both in a time portal of some sort with each other here and heading back to modern-day Tokyo that Ginkuro had eventually started to complain much more than Kagome could currently stand, and she said the first word that she could then think of well enough. [AN: You all know the particular word in question here, people, I'm quite sure, by now.] Much to their mutual great surprise, then, he had instantly found himself falling to the ground, or what might pass for the ground, in the time portal that they were now in, of course.

It had taken another three repetitions of that word to make Ginkuro stop arguing with her well enough and shut him up sufficiently for the rest of their trip back to modern-day Tokyo. Ginkuro had soon returned to his family's home in the area. And he had stayed there for the rest of the current day, at least, if not even longer than that here.

It had now been almost two weeks since that time, and Kagome somehow knew Ginkuro was just looking for another chance to drag her along with him on the search for more jewel fragments. This was because she was, at least to the best of his current knowledge, the only person he knew who might possibly be able to detect their presences well enough without help from anyone else at all. He didn't really know just how that was the case for her, but he still somehow knew it. As if it was a rather strange hunch, perhaps, of his.

They both suspected very strongly indeed now that they periodically would encounter each other in their respective lives, whether or not they really would want to do so in them. Though they both didn't really know just where and when such encounters might then happen for them just yet, of course. While she often visited with her friends or shopped in various places, at various times, he often bided his time in what she might normally call "Ivory Towers" in her life, but which were actually various locations that were somehow controlled by the Akai Media Consortium. Some sufficiently legitimate business enterprises were pursued, and some others that weren't sufficiently legitimate ones were also pursued, from time to time in those various locations. For various members of the rather large Akai Media Consortium worked on either side of the Akai Media Consortium's various business-related enterprises, and there were some that worked on both, as well.

Kagome soon rose from the couch and went to her room, encountering her brother Sota and her Grandfather playing with the family cat Buyo in a hall leading to it. They were rubbing the cat's stomach, and teasing them a little bit with a ball of yarn, when Kagome came upon them both in that hall. She looked at them both briefly, and then turned away from them to head to her room as originally planned. As she passed by them in that hall, she also thought, "Doesn't matter whether they're old or young, males are so juvenile sometimes. I wish they'd not tease Buyo like that, though."

She soon set her book on the desk in her room, and then moved to her closet to find a light jacket to wear to the mall where her friends would most likely find her by themselves. As she searched for a light jacket, she thought, "I hope that Indiana Jones doesn't drag me off on another hunting mission when I want to be with my friends." After their mutual return to modern-day Tokyo, she had watched all the movies that were then out in that movie series featuring Indiana Jones in them. And she somehow saw at least a few similarities between her still-recent acquaintance and Indiana Jones, for at least some yet-unknown reason. Though she would never call him "Indiana Jones" to his face, most likely, she had secretly adopted that as one of her nicknames for him, just the same. Just as she'd also given him the nickname Red Boy not too long after their return to modern-day Tokyo, by the way.

She soon found a suitable enough jacket for her purposes and desires here, and slipped it on seconds later. Then she picked up a nearby purse, took some money out of a dog-shaped bank, and eventually left her room behind again. She then went out her home's front door and got on a mostly green and white bicycle, just before her mother rushed to her side, all of a sudden. Before Kagome could get away from her home well enough, then, her mother gave her a somewhat small grocery list of items she wanted Kagome to try to pick up while she was out with her friends, if at all possible.

"Okay, Mother, I'll see what I can do to bring those things home with me when I return here. But I'd really like to see my friends now, if I can, please."

"I understand quite fully enough, Kagome. Have fun, then, if at all possible."

Kagome soon pedaled her bike to a nearby mall, and met up with a few of her friends from her school for a while. However, her peaceful outing with them was not to remain such for the rest of her time with them at the current time, unfortunately. For just as they were about to accompany each other to a nearby movie theater, she somehow caught a flash of red in the crowds near her, and sounds of great panic.

She had a very bad feeling about this, so she suddenly said, "Girls, find somewhere safe to hide, if at all possible. Don't ask me any questions right now, but just do it. For I can't give you any answers just yet."

Her friends shot her some looks of complete bafflement now, of course. But when they all saw her eyes had stopped twinkling and had turned quite stern indeed, they complied immediately with her instructions here, hoping that she would eventually let them know why she had told them to hide here well enough. When they were sufficiently safe from any potential harm at the current time, and she was sure that they wouldn't be able to see her again for a while, she ducked into a nearby deserted alley and pulled several things out of her purse. Those things were parts of a bow that Kaede had given her before she'd shattered the Shikon no Tama, and when not joined together, they looked like simple fans with a radius of about eight inches, more or less, or a ball of rainbow-colored yarn. However, with a press of a certain area on each fan, their appearances would change drastically, and almost instantly turn into certain parts of a simple recurved bow as needed. The yarn would then mysteriously change somehow to bowstrings, once the assembly of the bow was complete, and she'd string that bow again in no more than a minute, under normal enough circumstances. She completely assembled her bow in exactly 55 seconds, and then raced out of the deserted alley. She grabbed up random sticks and pipes as she did so now, and even as she headed towards where she'd suddenly seen the flash of red mere moments before. The random sticks and pipes suddenly turned into arrows, and her purse then into a quiver on her back, somehow.

When she finally got close enough to see quite well enough what was going on, what she saw was something she never expected to see. And when she did, she wished she hadn't seen it at all in the first place, for that matter.

* * *

Hmmm, I really wonder just what she could have seen that she wished she didn't want to see here in any way whatsoever. I'm so not going to tell you all here just yet, for sure. But you'll all just have to wonder what it is until I post the next chapter to this story here, of course. Whatever it is can't be all that good now, can it? Highly doubtful, at best, for sure, people. Please stay tuned for the next exciting chapter of _Be Careful What You Wish For_. Until next time, then, everyone, This is The Universal Storyteller now saying, "Over and out."


	2. Chapter Two: Two Battles & Many Arrivals

Here's the next possibly long-awaited second chapter of _Be Careful What You Wish For_, people. I promised you excitement, and I hope that you find this next chapter rather exciting indeed, of course, everyone. As usual, all characters, et cetera, are not my own, but most likely belong to others, unless it's quite obvious that I created those very same characters, et cetera. And if they're not of my own creation, then I most certainly do not claim them here at all, for all the obvious reasons here.

Mutsumi Otohime and many others will now make their appearances in this story, though you will not see most of them at considerable length for at least a little while, most likely. Much, though not all, of the action in this chapter will take place in and around the Hinata Dorm's grounds, though. Also, many things will begin to happen in this brand-new chapter and those yet to come in the near future that will considerably affect the way things will possibly turn out in it for many of the characters who will appear in this story or any of its potential sequels. I don't want to spoil the chapter here too much, of course, so I will just close this here, with my usual hopes that you will read, enjoy, and leave me at least a few rather clean, rather courteous, and rather constructive reviews for it, quite naturally enough, people. With no further ado, then, I hereby give you Chapter Two of _Be Careful What You Wish For_, everyone! This is The Universal Storyteller signing off now, until later, then!

* * *

Chapter Two: Two Big Battles and Many New Arrivals

* * *

1200 Hours

June 10, 1991

Near Juuban Junior High School

What Kagome was close enough to see what was going on well enough, among the things she saw then were many aliens of yet-unknown kinds battling many of the currently-known Sailor Senshi and Ginkuro, to name just a few people those aliens were then facing here. She also soon saw that many rather strange vortexes of also-unknown kinds were rather suddenly appearing in both the general and the immediate areas of the now-ongoing battle here. And those very same strange vortexes were then periodically depositing any number of people apiece in those areas, much to her great surprise here, in fact.

She found at least a dozen or so of those people quite near where she now was in the area of the battle. And began trying to protect them as best as she could, once she was actually close enough to them to do so here well enough, by the way. Kagome soon drove many aliens around those people away, or she killed them, as the need arose for her to then do so, with her bow and arrows, to the best of her current ability to do so.

Eventually, she, Ginkuro, and the Senshi, among any number of various others, somehow forced the still-surviving aliens that they'd all just fought to withdraw back to wherever they came from for at least the time being, if not for quite a while indeed. Those aliens that they'd actually somehow killed soon were whisked away along with all their still-living companions, if they still existed well enough to allow their companions to do just that here.

Once those aliens were all gone from the area as needed and as possible, she, along with the Senshi and various others, began checking on the people who might have been in danger here because of the aliens' appearance here, of course. All the people that had been whisked to here and now from yet-unknown times and/or places in the Universe's history were evidently safe and sound, so to speak, and relatively unharmed, more or less. Eventually, it was learned that they were not all from this time period and this place, so they were soon brought to a large hotel at least several blocks away from where the battle had just been fought here. Tuxedo Kamen soon arranged for them all to have free rent, at the very minimum, for at least a week or two with the hotel's management, if not at least a month, by calling in certain favors that they owed him at the current time. Once that was arranged quite well enough, and all of them were settled in any number of rooms in the hotel well enough, the Senshi soon departed from the area along with Tuxedo Kamen, at least, to go about things as they then all saw fit to go about them. After the Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen, at least, left the hotel's area behind, Kagome eventually found Ginkuro in a deserted alley somewhat near the hotel.

Ginkuro said, "You did well, it seems, defending those strangers, Kagome. I wonder why they are here, and who made them come here."

"I have no idea at all, Ginkuro. But some of them appear rather unfamiliar indeed to me here for some yet-unknown reason. I seem to recognize at least a few of them, but many others of them, I'm not so familiar with here."

"Most, if not all, of them appear to be about high school-aged or college-aged, it seems to me, Kagome. There are others who seem to be much older among them as well," said Ginkuro, as they then began to head back to Kagome's place here in Tokyo.

"Oh, wait, Ginkuro! I forgot to find my friends that I was then with when I learned of the battle, and I need to see if they're okay. I'll meet you back at my place within an hour, if I can. Tell Mother I'll be back as soon as I can, then."

"Do you have to, Kagome? I was planning to spend some time with you for a while, if I could, today, as a matter of fact."

"Yes, I do. If you don't like it, tough."

"I don't."

"Too bad. Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! This is for being a dog-brain, and trying to get me to forget my friends, by the way. Yes, I know you're just generally a normal human boy, more or less, but you still act so very dog-like at times, it seems to me, Ginkuro. So take this, dog-brain! Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit!"

Her words smashed him down into the ground eight times then very hard, for she was now very angry at him for trying to get her to forget her friends here, in fact. While he was still down, and bound by the word that she'd just said eight times to him, she then stormed off and went in search of her friends, much to his great chagrin.

Kagome found them all rather unexpectedly in a place called the Crown Arcade, a place where they normally wouldn't go at all in their lives, and chatting somewhat pleasantly with the manager there, one Motoki Furuhata. As usual, Motoki was wearing an apron, and helping his staff and the arcade's patrons out as the need then arose for him to do so here.

Kagome soon came to her friends' booth in the arcade, and joined them there. Motoki saw her, and came over to it here in very short order, so that he could take her order as well. Kagome soon ordered some rice and chicken with side orders of fruit salad and cheese logs, along with some oolong tea and a medium-sized bowl of Neapolitan-style ice cream covered with raisins and assorted other items. After she ordered her food and drink items, then, he left to attend to that order of hers, of course. Once he was sufficiently out of earshot here, then, she asked her friends, "How long have you girls actually been here?"

"About ten or so minutes, maybe," said one of them. A girl named Takako Matano, in fact. "Hoshiko Nishimoto found us earlier, and she said that this place might be a good place to hide out in while the Sailor Senshi fought against the beings that they were then fighting with, as we all were actually following your earlier directions to find a safe enough place to hide for at least a little while." Takako was wearing a medium green blouse over a pair of blue jeans and second-hand military-style black boots, along with a teardrop-shaped jade pendant at the base of a recently-inherited necklace that had several precious stones in it, most of which were actually sapphires, for that matter. Her somewhat thick and somewhat wavy hair was midnight black, and it normally was worn at just about mid-back length, whenever possible and/or desired. Her almond-shaped eyes were blue-green. And a sewing kit was resting quite near her feet on the floor next to their current booth here. While several books on precious gemstones were now sitting between her and one other person who was then in the booth with her and Kagome here. A certain black leather jacket of the particular style quite often seen on many motorcycle riders from all over the world was now hanging on a metal coat rack quite near the arcade's doors. And it unquestionably belonged to her here and now. For a rather unique design indeed was then on its back, featuring many assorted sewing and gemstone-related items in its rather unusual configuration, in fact.

"I see that Tara Gakusha is here as well. She must have gotten the same idea, it seems. Tara goes almost nowhere without Hoshiko, if she can possibly avoid it at all, and I see that they're hanging out near the game machines here," noted Kagome, a few seconds later.

"Yes, they are. They're also quite near a girl with a rather strange hairstyle who often is seen here with a good-sized group of girls," said another one of Kagome's friends now with her, one Suzue Sakurai, a girl with shoulder-length black hair often worn in a ponytail, whenever possible. Suzue was currently wearing a mostly silver knee-length dress with copper and black piping and several other decorations in appropriate enough locations whenever needed for it, by the way. And she had a somewhat dark skin tone, for she was the daughter of an older Japanese now-retired diplomat father and a considerably-younger Ethiopian astronomer mother, as well.

"Do you know her name, by any chance, Suzue?" asked Kagome.

"Word has it rather reliably that her name is Usagi Tsukino, and that one of the girls she often hangs out here with is a priestess at a place called Hikawa Jinja, I believe. In English, I believe the name of her temple is called 'Cherry Hill Temple,' if I'm not too mistaken here," said Suzue, as she sipped the last of her green tea from her cup here. A book on astronomy was near her left hand as she rested it on their table here.

"What's the name of that priestess, if you can tell me well enough right now, Suzue?"

"Rei Hino, I think. My cousin Maya Fugunaga seems to think she's rather weird for some reason or reasons, though she's never actually told me just why, exactly."

"Rei Hino, you say? I know I've seen that name around somewhere or heard it somewhere. I just can't remember where right now, though," said Kagome.

"Do you remember the recent election campaign for seats in the National Diet, Kagome?" said a third girl then with Kagome, Takako, and Suzue in their booth?"

"No, I don't. Why do you ask, Kazumi?" asked Kagome of Kazumi Soseki.

"Her father tried to use her to help his re-election campaign for his own seat in it. She was not happy at all about it, by the way. Yet, she still couldn't somehow stop him from doing so here, just the same. And he may periodically still continue to try to use her for his own personal political and social advantage until such time as she can make him stop it, if at all possible, I think," answered Kazumi, a 15-year-old girl with chin-length auburn hair normally worn in a nearly Molly Ringwald-like style and brown eyes. She was wearing their school's spring uniform now, in fact, even though school was out for them all at the current time, due to it being summer vacation from it now.

"And did he get re-elected? I seem to have forgotten just how the elections for the Diet went last time here, by the way, Kazumi."

"Yes, he got re-elected, unfortunately. Word has it that she and him don't generally get along with each other very well, and that's one reason why she stays at her temple with her grandfather. I'm not sure if it's her paternal grandfather she stays with there or her maternal one, but I still know that she stays there with her grandfather, just the same. And several of her friends often drop by there as well, it seems. Also, there is a guy there who helps out from time to time there, whenever the need arises. He seems to be a singer of some sort who withdrew from the music scene for at least a while. I don't know all that much about him either, but I at least do know his name is Yuuichirou Kumada, by the way, Kagome."

"Kumada, that name seems familiar to me for some reason, girls."

"Yes, his father is a major television and movie producer in the Kyoto area, it seems to me, and he wasn't too happy when his son decided to pursue the music business while still in high school. But Yuuichirou persisted, and finally agreed to a deal with him, by the time that he got out of high school. If he didn't make it sufficiently big in that chosen career by the time he was 25 years old, Yuuichirou then would be required to work for his father's production studio from then on in his own life, for at least ten years, if not longer, and to marry the woman who his father had then picked out for him, even if Yuuichirou didn't want to marry that particular woman by then in his own life, Kagome."

"So how much time does he have to make it big enough in that chosen career, Kazumi?" asked Takako, in very short order.

"I believe about four years, more or less, Takako."

"Does Rei know this just yet, as far as you know?" Asked Suzue, with a somewhat curious look then on her face as she asked Kazumi this here.

"No, I don't believe so, Suzue."

Eventually, the four girls left the Crown Arcade and parted from each other again, so that they could each go to their respective residences anywhere at all in Tokyo, of course. But only once they'd paid for their respective lunches at it, for the obvious reasons here.

Kagome arrived back at her place by 1:30 in the afternoon, at the very latest, about an hour, more or less, after she'd told Ginkuro to sit eight times rather suddenly indeed. When she got back, her mother said, "Ginkuro was looking for you earlier. He was in the well-house last I saw, if I remember well enough here."

"I see. Well, I suppose I better find him soon before he gets too much more upset with me here, then. What other news do you have to share with me before I go looking for him, for it seems you have at least a few things to say to me before I do?"

"It seems that there will be an archery competition in the near future that Ginkuro would like you to attend, if not also to compete in, for some reason or reasons he wasn't willing to share with me now. And he thinks you should perhaps enter it, if at all possible."

"Why?"

"He didn't say, but it seemed to be rather important to him, just the same."

"I suppose I should discuss it with him, then. What else, Mama?"

"My Uncle Yukoshuji seems to think that you should try to visit him and his granddaughter in the very near future, if at all possible, in Azabu Juuban, Kagome," said her mother.

"Who's his granddaughter, then?"

"Rei Hino is her name, in fact, Kagome."

"My friends and I were just talking about her and her father earlier today. Her father is not very nice, to put it very mildly, it seems to us all."

"No, I don't suppose he is. But he's going to do what he's going to do, no matter if he should do so or not in his own life, right?"

"I suppose so. But it makes me so mad when someone doesn't treat their daughter as they deserve to be treated, just the same, Mama."

"Well, he lost his wife a long time ago, and both he and his daughter are probably still grieving her loss, you know, from what little I know of their current family situation, Kagome."

"Still, that's no excuse for him to treat her that way, I think."

"Of course not. But maybe he doesn't know any better right now in his life, Kagome."

"You don't act like that, even though Dad isn't here any longer, Mother."

"Yes, that's true. But I had a lot of good people to help me after we lost your father to an earthquake while he was at work, Kagome. He might not have had so many such people sufficiently near him to provide the help he needed after he and Rei lost her mother to some medical condition, for that matter. So that's probably at least partly, if not entirely, why he and his daughter don't normally get along with each other as well as they most likely should."

"Before I forget, I was actually able to get all the things on your grocery list, although it took at least a little heavy-duty searching to find a few of those things on your list, Mother." Kagome soon gave her mother all the things that she'd wanted Kagome to get for her, and then went up to her room briefly to attend to a few other things here as needed or desired.

No more than perhaps a few more minutes later, then, she was heading back to the past with Ginkuro, even though she really didn't want to do so right now. For she wanted to stay in the present for at least a little while longer at the present time. Yet, Ginkuro would not be swayed on the matter of hunting for any number of shards for the Shikon no Tama. So they soon entered the necessary well, and began heading to the past in the usual matter, of course. [AN: I don't think I need to describe that sort of thing here, for you people probably know what it most often looks like whenever they might do so at all in their lives, I think.] Five minutes, at most, after they leapt into the well, relatively speaking, they both were then most definitely back in the past again.

* * *

1330 Hours

June 10, 1991

Keitaro's Room

While Kagome and Ginkuro were just about to head back to the past, Keitaro was then in his room reading more of his mail from the past several days or so for a while. Or he was then re-reading mail that he'd already read at least partly by the time that Kaolla had suddenly jumped on him earlier that very day. Most likely the latter, seeing as at least one of them had a postmark from the Azabu Juuban part of Tokyo, in fact.

The letter he was then reading was from Ikuko Tsukino, and in it, she mentioned the fact that her daughter and a number of her daughter's friends were all currently looking for a place to stay in together temporarily during their summer vacation from school. Ikuko had heard of the Hinata Dorm from her husband, who'd been sent to cover a rather unusual story of some sort in the area of it by his employer, a story that somehow had actually involved Haruka Urashima, a number of Su's robotic inventions, and several other things, for that matter. And word had actually gotten back to Usagi from certain other associates of hers very soon afterward, somehow, that a hot springs was somewhere in the general area of them. Quite naturally enough, Usagi and several of her close friends all soon decided that they wanted to go visit them someday soon after hearing about them like they all had, if at all possible. Ikuko didn't think it was a good idea for them to do that, really, but her daughter still somehow got her to inquire about the possibility that she and her friends might be able to visit them for a while, at least. Hence the letter from Ikuko to Keitaro here.

Keitaro soon decided to call Ikuko and discuss the matter with her over the phone. He then went to the nearest phone in the Dorm, while holding several pieces of mail in his hands, and while also keeping an eye out for any more potential sudden appearances of various Dorm residents here, for the obvious reasons here. No more than a few minutes, at most, after leaving his room, then, he was already on the phone to Ikuko Tsukino here.

He and Ikuko discussed the matter for a little while, at least, and he soon quoted her a certain price that would need to be paid to make it possible for her daughter Usagi and her friends to stay at the Hinata Dorm for a certain length of time. Ikuko considered the price for at least a little while, and soon said, "It seems a little steep, at the very least, Urashima-san."

"Well, if they're going to be here for at least a few weeks, if not longer, then certain expenses will quite naturally enough accrue to this place, for all the obvious reasons, Tsukino-san. Tell you what, due to the fact that I'm feeling sort of in a charitable enough mood at the moment, at least. I'll not require you to pay all the money for their stay here now, but allow you to pay it in installments, if that's better for you, interest-free. Would that be much better for you, and perhaps allow you to pay the price that I quoted earlier much easier?"

"I think it just might. It may not actually be a price that my husband will like, I think. But we've noticed that Usagi and her friends seem to need to get away from Tokyo for at least a little while, if we're not too mistaken here at all."

"I see. And just how many girls or women are we talking about here, then?"

"Six to eight of them, I believe, if I'm not too mistaken here. Most, if not all, of them should be high school-aged, it seems to me now."

"When should I expect them to get here, then, Tsukino-san?"

"We'll have them on the way there by nightfall tonight, I think, if something significant doesn't come up between then and now, Urashima-san. They will need to perhaps bunk with several, if not all, of your current residents, though, it seems to me, until they can have rooms of their own where you are now," answered Ikuko, a few moments later.

"Very well. The residents of the Dorm will need to be told of this, obviously enough."

"Of course they will. I just hope that they don't send the now-famous Japanese Flying Ronin airborne again too soon, if he doesn't want to fly here, though."

"Well, I've secretly begun considering the idea of going to flight school someday after I get into Toudai, Tsukino-san. Don't ask, or tell anyone else you might know at all, please. Long story. Maybe someday, if we ever meet face to face, I'll tell you it. Just not yet, though."

"Fair enough. If you need anything else from us, please let us know as soon and as best as you can, then."

"Will do, of course. I'd best get off now, for I seem to be hearing the voices of several Hinata Dorm residents heading this way here and now. And it might not look all that good at all here if they somehow actually catch me talking to you now about this particular matter here. Good day, Tsukino-san." Seconds later, then, Ikuko hung up her end of the phone, after which Keitaro did the same, just before Naru was close enough to Keitaro to see that he'd been on the phone just now. By the time Naru walked in the door well enough, Keitaro was already lying on the couch and reading an Ernest Hemingway novel, most specifically _The Old Man and the Sea_.

Motoko and Naru were now walking side-by-side, Shinobu was a few feet behind them, and Mitsune and Mutsumi were also walking side-by-side with each other. Kaolla was nowhere to be seen at the current time, though. When Keitaro soon asked about where Kaolla might be, Naru said, "I suppose she's off on one of her random explorations of the local area, as she's often been known to do from time to time. I have no idea just when she might be back here, Keitaro."

"Well, I have some somewhat big news for you all, girls. I hope you all will hear me out completely before you then respond to whatever I then will have to say, when I share what I have to share with you all later here. Kaolla really should be here, though, for this particular matter here will by sheer necessity involve her too, in actual reality. And I really would prefer not to have to cover the same material more than once, if it can somehow be avoided at all, Narusegawa."

"I see. I hope what you have to share with us is good, Keitaro, then," said Naru.

"Well, you may think it's good or not when you hear me out, but until we can all sit down together and try to discuss things in a rational enough manner, I would prefer not to say too much about the matter, Naru."

"Should we let Haruka know of what you have to share with us, then?" asked Mitsune.

"No, there's no need to do that just yet, I think, Mitsune. I have a feeling we'll be seeing her later on, by the time I'd be sharing what I have to share with you all here, somehow."

"So how many meals should I prepare for supper tonight, then?" asked Shinobu.

"Prepare enough meals for sixteen people, just in case we need to have that many. But I don't expect that there will be sixteen people here to feed tonight, just the same, Shinobu. I only expect that it will be you six, myself, and Haruka who will be having supper here tonight. But we'll all have to see if that's just how things turn out here, of course," answered Keitaro.

"Sixteen meals, Urashima?" asked Motoko.

"Yes, that many, Motoko. I don't know if they'll be needed tonight, but they might very well be. Especially if Kaolla is rather hungry tonight, of course."

"I suppose so, Urashima. She often eats a lot when she hasn't had anything substantial enough for a long enough period of time, if memory serves me well enough. And it must take a lot of food to provide the energy she often shows around here, it seems to me."

"Yes, I tend to agree, Motoko," said Keitaro. "I just hope she realizes the pain she caused me today, even if it wasn't on purpose here."

"Keitaro, I think she'll realize it soon enough, if she hasn't already," said Mutsumi. "She cares very much about you, but sometimes doesn't know how to show it the right way, I think. Remember, she's still young. And those who are young are often unsure of how they should normally act in their lives, it seems to me."

"Perhaps you're right, Mutsumi. Perhaps you are. But I really wish that she wouldn't actually do those kinds of things to me quite so often, if at all, just the same, of course. Especially because they often seem to help get me in trouble with certain other people who shall remain nameless here, but who still know quite well just who they are, in fact."

"Kaolla is who she is, Keitaro, and she'll be who she wants to be, if and whenever it's at all possible to be who she wants to be, in her own life," said Mutsumi. "She is her own rather unique person, just like all the rest of humanity's members generally are for themselves in this world of ours, if I'm not too mistaken here in it at all."

Eventually, the others now with Keitaro found other things to do for at least a little while in or around the Dorm's grounds. For instance, Shinobu soon went to the kitchen to begin preparing all the food and drink that Keitaro said might be necessary later on. Naru, Mitsune, and Mutsumi went to their respective rooms, and Motoko to the roof, not too much later. Keitaro stayed on the couch, and continued to read _The Old Man and the Sea_ for at least a little while longer, before eventually deciding to go back to work on various things all over the Dorm's grounds. For instance, fixing several rather recently-made holes that the resident hotheads had indirectly made when they'd sent him flying after an accidental landing right on top of them both, courtesy of still another massively-failed experiment or two of Su's elsewhere on the Dorm's grounds.

He gathered up the necessary supplies for the tasks he'd soon be doing, and then notified the necessary tenants of his plans, before beginning to work on those tasks. Especially when it came to notifying Naru and Motoko here, for all the obvious reasons here, of course.

As he was then working on those various tasks of his, then, Kaolla rather suddenly came flying through the air almost directly right at him, with his back facing totally towards her at that particular time as he was then working on those tasks of his here. She was actually flying almost directly towards him at perhaps a speed of several hundred miles an hour, apparently unaided, as a matter of fact. And not by choice, either, for her clothes were now really on fire, and she was screaming very loudly indeed as she also tried to put out that fire while flying towards him like she was. Yet Keitaro didn't know this was the case here at the moment, for music playing in a set of headphones on his ears completely blocked out the sounds of her screaming from somewhere behind him here.

It wasn't more than another few seconds before Naru and Motoko arrived, and before she crashed down on top of Keitaro still aflame, smacking him in the back of the head with her flailing hands and feet and even her forehead. Of course, Keitaro pitched over and smashed partly through the wall that he was still working on when Kaolla smashed into him like she did. Shinobu was at his side in no more than a few more seconds, in any case, and she quickly removed the headphones from his ears, and the music player from his belt, so that Motoko could then dump water on top of both him and Su at the current time here. Kitsune and Mutsumi were trying to put out the fire in the meantime that was still burning Kaolla's clothes, with the help of some fire extinguishers. Naru, for her part, tried to make sure that Keitaro was all right, seeing that he wasn't moving at the current time, by the way. She soon pulled him out of the wall that he'd smashed through, and laid him as carefully as she then could on the floor somewhat near it, once Motoko had actually been able to pull Kaolla at least a few inches, if not at least a foot, away from where Keitaro had unexpectedly landed in the wall.

Once that was done well enough here, Motoko soon doused both Keitaro and Kaolla with several nearby buckets of water, having a strange feeling of some yet-unknown sort that they might somehow actually put out the fire burning Kaolla's clothes well enough here now. Kaolla's clothes were nearly burnt, though not entirely, all the way off, in fact, and she was barely covered now with what essentially were random shreds of fabric both above and below her belt, in various places. Not to the actual point of potential unplanned indecency, in any case, but very nearly so, just the same. As for Keitaro's clothes, there was now a rather good-sized grouping of somewhat random holes in the back of his two current work shirts, at least. And those very same holes soon revealed that there were some minor burns on his back from when Kaolla had just smacked into him like she had rather unexpectedly done here.

Shinobu soon returned with two first aid kits, at Naru's direction. And by the time that she did so, Kaolla was speaking again, though not without at least a little bit of obvious effort here, just the same. As Shinobu began to help attend to Kaolla's injuries here, and also requested that Naru go right away to Kaolla's room in order to try to find some other clothes that Kaolla could then wear, she soon asked, "What happened, Kaolla?"

"A group of rebels from Molmol rather unexpectedly came after me, along with any number of other people or beings, many of which were apparently of non-Terran origin, somehow. And they all very soon afterward attacked me and others I was then associating with rather unexpectedly. After I'd left here earlier today, seeing as I'd actually been unable to have any breakfast here, I soon went in search of at least some more equipment that I could then hopefully use to work on any number of my various work projects. And I eventually encountered those rebels and strange beings in some certain part of Tokyo that I can't remember the name of well enough here at the current moment. Many of us were actually taken out somewhat easily by them. But certain others of us were able to survive well enough, at least at first, somehow. Many of us were then rather suddenly sent flying through the air exactly like I just was here, by the way. And I don't really remember much more than that here and now. Except that at least a few, if not a lot, of the people and/or beings that'd rather suddenly indeed attacked me and those that I was then with evidently decided it'd be a rather good idea to set many of our clothes on fire before they sent us flying anywhere else in this world of ours."

Everyone conscious here then discussed the necessary matters here as best as they could at the current time. Even while both Kaolla and Keitaro were still being attended to here as was then needed by the Dorm's other tenants and Haruka, who'd closed her Tea Shop almost immediately after first hearing Kaolla's in-flight screaming, in fact. It took at least a little while, if not a long while, for Keitaro to sufficiently regain consciousness here, but he was sufficiently conscious again by 5:50 pm local time, in any case.

He'd barely regained it well enough again just before Naru soon returned at Shinobu's request with several other items of Kaolla's own clothes here, along with a rather good-sized blanket so as to temporarily shield Kaolla now from his view at least a little bit, if not completely. True, she knew down deep inside that Keitaro didn't really ever want to see Kaolla or anyone else residing there, at least, in somewhat undressed or somewhat uncovered conditions of any kind whatsoever, if it could ever be possibly avoided, at all. But given his great propensity for periodically seeing many of his tenants in such states, albeit always unintentionally, she still did what she possibly could here to make sure that he somehow saw as little as possible, if any, of Kaolla's person while she actually was still in such a state of considerable disarray, at least, so to speak.

As Haruka and Mutsumi both held the aforementioned blanket between where Keitaro and where Kaolla now each were, for all the obvious reasons here, Naru and the Hinata Dorm's other tenants then removed all of Kaolla's now-ruined clothes and checked her out more thoroughly here, where needed, of course. Not seeing any major injuries likely needing any heavy-duty medical care at the moment, or at least not easily enough here, they all soon took care of the other injuries that had been hidden by the now-ruined clothes as best as they could, and then helped her dress in some of the clothes that Naru had earlier retrieved from Kaolla's room for her here. When Kaolla was sufficiently decent again here, Naru and Motoko let Haruka and Mutsumi drop the blanket they'd been holding up between Keitaro and Kaolla here, quite obviously enough. And both of them soon left the area behind as well to go wherever their moods then led them each to go, for that matter. But not before first picking up Kaolla and bringing her to her room in the Dorm again, by the way.

That done, Naru asked Keitaro, "How are you now, by the way?"

"Quite cold and quite wet here, quite obviously enough. If you girls don't mind, I think I'd really like to go back to my room to change out of these drenched clothes of mine and try to get at least a little bit warmer, okay?" He then struggled to rise here well enough, and stay sufficiently erect while doing so. But his legs were still somewhat unsteady here, and he soon found himself losing his footing again here, for he still was at least a little out of it, for the obvious reasons here.

As he began slumping to the nearby floor again, Shinobu suddenly flew to his side, and made sure that his head wouldn't smack the nearby floor to at least some degree here. She moved like a bolt of lightning, perhaps, to a position immediately behind him, and actually cushioned his rather sudden trip down to the floor with her own body, in fact. As he then slumped to the floor again, he also suddenly slipped back into a state of unconsciousness again. Seeing this before anyone else did, she turned his body around so that his front was facing her own, so as to hopefully better keep the back of his head from hitting the floor here again, for that matter. She then placed his head on her abdomen just below her chest, and somewhat carefully, yet somewhat gracefully, guided him back to the nearby floor here. When Naru, Motoko, and Kitsune then shot her a questioning look here, quite obviously due to the particular position in which she'd just placed him in as she brought him down to the floor as she was then doing, she shot them another look that unquestionably said, in essence, "He's most definitely quite unconscious here and now, girls. And he's most definitely not to be punished for this position here, as a result, or to be called what you often call him whenever he's in a potentially embarrassing situation with any or all of us. If anyone objects, then they'll have to deal with me later as I see fit to respond to their objections here."

The three young women studied Shinobu's face at the current time, and then Naru said, "Very well, Shinobu. But if he tries anything at all later, after he wakes up well enough, then we most certainly will not be happy with him at all, of course."

"Understood, Naru. This particular situation, however, is not his fault. As such, I will not go easy on you if you mistreat him unnecessarily due to it. Remember, I really got after Kaolla earlier, you see, for what she caused to happen to him then. And you three are on much shakier ground, from a legal aspect, I believe, considering all that you've happened to do to him since he came here to be our manager at Grandma Hina's request."

"When did you start learning this, Shinobu?" asked Motoko, as she, Naru, and Mitsune began to take Keitaro to his room in the Dorm for a while with Shinobu.

"Around my birthday, in fact. I was thinking about what I might eventually want to do for a living if I don't actually have a career in the culinary arts, and I happened to find a good number of law books, among other things, Motoko. And there have been far too many instances of you, Naru, and Mitsune mistreating him like you do. If things continue as they have been happening since he got here, there may eventually come a day when you will all no longer be able to stay here ever again. I don't know when that might happen, but Keitaro must have a breaking point past which he will no longer tolerate such treatment from you three, at least, if not anyone else as well."

"He always comes back after we do whatever we often do to him, Shinobu, so quite obviously he hasn't actually reached it yet, if he ever will," said Mitsune.

"Don't you realize just how shaky your legal grounds for remaining here are, you three? A normal person would likely have left here for good, and possibly even in a body bag, for no good reason, I think. And then you would really be in a pickle, legally speaking, at least. Why do you take unfair advantage of him, girls?"

"He always peeks on us, for example, Shinobu," said Naru.

"Not intentionally, you know, Naru. I mean, you may be a rather good-looking girl indeed, at least, but your innermost personality is often uglier than your exterior appearance, it seems to me here and now. One might very well perhaps even think that it is you three girls who just might be the real perverts here, more often than not, I believe, if they were somehow actually able to observe each one of you for a long enough time in your respective lives."

"We are NOT perverts, Shinobu," said Motoko.

"So says the heir to a dojo who considers virtually every male in this world that she happens to encounter unworthy to even somehow breathe the same air as she does, it seems to me. Males are not necessarily as bad as you evidently think they generally are in this world. Your own sister Tsuruko was not obviously all that afraid of males, like you happen to be, as evidenced by her marriage some length of time ago, Motoko. And I strongly suspect that there are actually many males who have been known to train in your school's martial arts disciplines for quite some time indeed, for that matter. I really don't know all the details about just why you generally hate males in your life, and frankly I really don't want to. But this path that you now seem to be on in your life will only lead you to great dishonor, at least, if not a very premature grave, think, by the way. As a matter of fact, I suspect that somehow, you might have even secret feelings of your own for him, and not just ones of hate or dislike for him!"

"That's ridiculous, Shinobu. I have no feelings of that kind whatsoever for him!" said Motoko.

"I think you do, but you're just not aware of it well enough yet. Or, at least, that's what you keep trying to tell all of us periodically, if not also yourself as well down deep in your own mortal heart, Motoko. And, personally, I think you're not the only one who's trying to do just that here in their own lives, for that matter."

As the four of them carried Keitaro to his room in the Dorm, with Shinobu holding his head up, Motoko his upper torso, Mitsune his middle, and Naru his legs and feet, Motoko said, "Why would I even be trying to do that in the first place? Sure, he's the only male here most of the time, but still, why would I want to give up my freedom to train as I do to pursue romance with any male? I am not interested in such things as that in my life."

"So you say. But if you aren't, then you no doubt will eventually be, if you're a normal enough human being, Motoko," said Shinobu. "You look up to your sister quite a bit, do you not?"

"Of course, but what's your point?" asked Motoko, as they arrived at Keitaro's door. Shinobu crouched down a bit, and rested Keitaro's head on her shoulder briefly so that she could open his door with both her hands if she had to here, in fact. Which she then had to do here, by the way, for the door was apparently not in an easily-giving mood at the moment, for some reason.

"Tsuruko still trains as a warrior, does she not, even after her marriage to her husband?"

"That is so. But your point still eludes me, Shinobu."

"She has sought love, and yet remained a strong warrior, Motoko. If your sister can do that, why can't you?" asked Shinobu, as she had the other girls hold him briefly all by themselves for a few moments, at least. She then prepared his futon for occupancy again here as needed at the current time, for that matter. Then, when it met sufficiently enough with her approval here, she had them lay him quite carefully down on his futon again, of course.

"Because males generally seem to want to take advantage of virtually any non-related females they might typically encounter in their lives, down deep inside themselves, if and whenever they possibly can, Shinobu. If that's true, then it is up to every female to do whatever she possibly can to defend herself or any other female who might be treated unjustly by them, if and whenever possible, I think."

"Motoko, Keitaro has never tried to do that with any of us, from what I know of him so far in all our lives." Shinobu suddenly removed his shirt and jeans that he was then wearing, much to the surprise of the other three young women now present in his room with her. "No comments, girls. He has wet clothes, and if they're not removed, he might catch pneumonia. And I don't want him to, seeing as he's currently unconscious and unable to change out of his clothes at the current time, of course. So I'm helping him here as best as I can, whether you like it or not."

"Maybe he has, and maybe he hasn't. But if he hasn't, then there may very well be a good chance that he will eventually do so, I think, Shinobu," said Motoko, as she watched Shinobu work with Keitaro's clothing at the current time.

"Keitaro wouldn't likely ever do such a thing in his life, if he could possibly ever avoid it somehow in it. Kitsune, look for a pair of his underwear, at least, if not also a pair of his pajamas, in his dresser. I think they might be in the second or third drawer from the top, if memory serves me well enough here and now." Kitsune did so somewhat quickly, and soon brought the necessary items to Shinobu here for Keitaro's use. Shinobu briefly had both Naru and Motoko hold him here, where needed, so that she could then put those items on him here, when needed, in fact. Then Shinobu gently brushed her right hand across his face briefly, as she also pulled his covers on top of him here, before saying, "We should probably leave him alone for a little while now. Somehow, I get this feeling that if we all do so for at least a little while, he'll be back up and moving around again here before supper."

The four young women soon left Keitaro alone in his room for a while, and eventually dispersed to various other places in the Dorm. Shinobu, for instance, went back to the kitchen to resume her temporarily-abandoned preparing of supper. Mitsune went back to her own room to do whatever then came to her mind just after Shinobu left the other three girls alone again here. As for Naru, she then went back to her own room to continue reading a novel she'd been reading earlier that very day, by the way. And Motoko went back to the roof to resume the training that she'd been doing earlier when Kaolla's rather sudden and rather unexpected flight had happened with some rather loud screaming here, for that matter.

A few hours later, at most, supper was ready, and, as Shinobu had expected, Keitaro was up and about again sufficiently well. Even Kaolla was sufficiently rested and sufficiently active here at least enough to actually come down for supper, for that matter. Although both Keitaro and Kaolla still were at least a little bit bothered by a headache, at least, for the obvious reasons, they still were sufficiently alert and able to move around easily enough, somehow. Shinobu soon distributed the food and drink items as she then saw fit to distribute them here amongst the other seven people then at the table. Yes, even Haruka had decided to make an appearance at the table here and now, in fact.

After a few more minutes had passed, at least, and conversation had begun to at least pick up a little bit at the table, Keitaro said, "Girls and Haruka, sometime very soon, and maybe sometime within the next 24 hours or so, several young girls will be coming here for at least a few days, if not even longer than that. Their sponsor has agreed to cover their expenses as needed while they're here, where appropriate enough. You will likely have to share rooms for them until we can find other places for them to stay in on the Dorm's grounds."

"What are their names, as far as you know, then?" asked Naru.

"Usagi Tsukino, Ami Mizuno, Rei Hino, Makoto Kino, Minako Aino, Naru Osaka, Reika Nishimura, and Sylvia Wakefield, if memory serves me well enough here."

"What do you know of them, then?" asked Motoko.

"Not much, it seems. But perhaps we'll learn more about them as time goes on while they're here, of course."

"How do you want them to be distributed here in the Dorm, then?"

"Let's figure that out later, once they get here. I don't know when they'll get here exactly, but I do at least have some pictures of them, just the same." He withdrew a packet of photos from a pocket of the jacket he was then wearing, and set it down on the table near his plate. Then he carefully opened that packet of photos, while he also had his tenants and Haruka each make quite sure that their hands were sufficiently clean here, and began taking those photos out. He soon spread them out near his plate, and pointed to each girl in turn, as he told them all he knew about each of those girls at the current time.

Eventually, Shinobu said, "Makoto seems to be a girl I'd really get along with. Motoko might have a real challenge in trying to defeat her in a mock battle, and Makoto might just be able to help me learn how to cook better, I think."

"Ami Mizuno is in much the same kind of family situation as you now are, it seems," said Keitaro. "At least she is, if Mrs. Tsukino's not too mistaken about such things here, Shinobu. Mrs. Tsukino doesn't really know enough about Ami yet to be entirely sure of her actual current family situation, though, according to her."

"I see. I hope that none of them decide to treat you just like Naru and Motoko and Kitsune, though, of course, while they're staying with us, Senpai."

"I don't think they will, but we'll have to see what happens, just the same, quite obviously enough, Shinobu," said Keitaro.

"Ami seems rather intelligent, Keitaro," said Naru. "Do you think she might be willing to try to help us study well for our next try at getting into Tokyo University?"

"Perhaps, Naru. But I'm not quite sure about that just yet, of course. She might just have other plans about just how to spend her time while she's still here with her friends, you see."

"Rei seems like a person that has a very short temper," commented Haruka.

"Yes, based on what I've heard from Mrs. Tsukino, she and Usagi often seem to get into rather heated disagreements with each other. Often those disagreements of theirs are quite loud ones, in fact, if what Mrs. Tsukino told me about them both is sufficiently accurate here. She is evidently one girl that I might have to be very careful around whenever she's here as well. Rei may not also take very well to many of the things that you often do around here, either, Kaolla, for that matter."

"Why?" asked Kaolla.

"Because you have much the same kind of personality that Usagi does, it seems. Bubbly and carefree and not often looking where you're going, for instance. Minako is quite a bit like Usagi and you as well, often. She also makes a lot of unintentional mechanical mistakes, just like you often do with your various work projects. So we'd probably all best try to make sure that there's nothing lying about that she somehow might inadvertently mess up and/or blow up to at least some degree, if not to a great degree, for that matter, if and whenever possible, everyone."

."Might I get along with Rei, Urashima?" asked Motoko.

"Hard to say. But you really don't want to get on her bad side. Or on Makoto's either, for that matter. From what Mrs. Tsukino told me of Makoto, she doesn't take all that well to bullies in her life, after she'd gotten to know at least a little of Makoto's past from at least her daughter, if not also Makoto as well. If she ever sees you or Naru get after me, or if she sees Kitsune do the same, somehow, she might just get after any or all of you three girls here, to tell you the truth."

"So you're saying that she just might defend you from any or all of them, somehow, Senpai?" asked Shinobu.

"Yes, I believe that I am, whenever she sees fit and however she sees fit, Shinobu."

"Then I suppose we'd all best try to make quite sure that she has absolutely no reason at all to get after any or all of us, right?" asked Naru.

"I think that would be a rather wise course of action, at least while they're here with us, Naru," said Keitaro, after a few seconds of somewhat silent contemplation here.

"What do you know of Naru Osaka, then?" asked Mutsumi.

"Naru has been Usagi's best friend for many years, according to Mrs. Tsukino. She and Usagi have actually been going to all of the same schools for as long as they've both been in school, for that matter. However, Mrs. Tsukino hasn't actually seen a lot, if any, of Naru over the last several months or so, for some yet-unknown reason to her. And apparently Usagi hasn't been spending a lot of time with Naru outside of school either, for some other yet-unknown reason to her."

"How does Reika figure into this?" asked Kaolla.

"Reika is the girlfriend of the manager for the arcade/restaurant where Usagi and a number of her friends often hang out with each other. And she often sees them in various other places besides that one whenever their paths cross in their respective lives. She is coming to spend some time with them, and to keep an eye on them for her boyfriend Motoki and for Usagi's boyfriend Mamoru."

"That doesn't explain Sylvia's reason for being here, then," said Kitsune.

"Usagi and several of her other close friends have seen a good deal of her all around Tokyo's local area, and perhaps even in various other places in the world, it seems. And they all are evidently now beginning to develop some relationships with her that they all hope will prove to be life-long friendships with her, Kitsune. Usagi eventually asked Sylvia if she just might want to actually come here for at least a little while, if not for a long while, with her and several of her other friends. Sylvia eventually agreed to do just that sometime, if she possibly could ever do just that, in her own mortal life. So she may just show up here as well, for that matter."

Haruka mused here for a few seconds, and then said, "I hope you know what you're doing, Keitaro, and that this idea of bringing in other tenants for at least a little while doesn't come back to cause any major problems for us, of course."

"So do I, Haruka. So do I. Perhaps, though, their presences here might just save me at least a few rather-unwarranted flights from Naru and Motoko here, come to think of it."

Haruka thought about that possibility here for at least a little while, and eventually said, "That's true, I suppose. But I hope you don't cause any of the new tenants to jump on you like those two often do here, you know."

"Of course I do, Haruka. But not even I happen to know just how the future is actually going to develop for each of us in our respective lives yet, for all the obvious reasons, quite naturally enough."

Some time later, then, everyone parted from each other, most likely for the rest of the night. Or at least most of them did, anyway, by 8:30 or so at night. Keitaro decided to return to his room and read more of the book that he'd been reading earlier that day, leaving the girls to do as they then wished to do in their respective lives.

Soon after Keitaro actually returned to his room again, Shinobu, Kaolla, Naru, and Mutsumi eventually decided to hit the hot springs for a while. Motoko and Kitsune, however, decided not to join them, for Motoko decided to meditate in her room alone for a while before going to bed, and Kitsune decided to do a little work on a new story she'd begun thinking up a little while before.

The four who decided to hit the hot springs before they each went to bed for the rest of the night eventually came there with bath towels around themselves, for the obvious reasons. Even though Keitaro wasn't all that likely to come upon them all of a sudden, they still did so, just the same. They all soon slipped into the hot springs, and found their usually-preferred places to be in it before they set their towels aside so that they could each bathe there for at least a little while. They bathed themselves as they then saw fit to, and wondered at least a little bit about each of the young women that Keitaro had mentioned earlier at supper, even as they periodically conversed with each other in the hot springs.

Eventually, though, they all left the hot springs and each of them changed briefly back into other clothes of theirs before retiring to their respective rooms for the rest of the night. Or, at least, that was their current plan here, anyway. Little did they yet know that the other eight girls would show up in the very near future, for that matter.

Sometime around 10:30, though, sounds of a big battle somewhere near the Dorm reached Motoko's ears, and she hurriedly grabbed up her sword, before bursting out of her room with a loud shout here. That shout soon woke up the rest of the Dorm's residents, or at least most of them. Those that weren't woken up by the shout from her, though, were woken up by the rather loud sounds of her feet pounding on the applicable floors for the hallways that she then went through on the way to the Dorm's front door here. She burst out of the front door and down its steps to find six sailor-suited girls battling a huge monster of some yet-unknown sort here, while also trying to protect two other people here from that monster.

She reacted almost immediately upon seeing that monster reach for those sailor-suited girls, and soon unleashed several of the martial arts techniques she'd learned before in her life against that very same monster. Motoko's techniques, though, couldn't reach the monster in time to keep it from knocking four of those same girls into various nearby trees and/or buildings. The other two girls in sailor suits couldn't reach them in time here well enough, however. For they were the only two really still able to protect the other two people they were then protecting her from that monster now. Motoko charged at that monster with seemingly reckless abandon while the two remaining sailor-suited girls tried to get its attention well enough, and she soon hit that monster again with several more attacks of her own at the same time. The monster reared, and nearly flipped over on top of her after the two remaining sailor-suited girls had hit it with several combination attacks. But she was actually able to move away from it in time before she might have possibly been crushed by the monster, thanks to the rather sudden appearance of another one of Kaolla's still-recent inventions which kept the monster from falling on her somehow, a mecha she had named Mega-Keitaro seven point three. Mega-Keitaro seven point three held up the monster at least long enough for Motoko to somehow get out of the likely path down to the ground that it would probably be taking to there after those girls' combination attacks had actually hit it rather well enough. Then Mega-Keitaro let the monster go, once it was safe enough to do so here well enough. It did this as Keitaro and the others began checking out the four sailor-suited girls that had been thrown against the aforementioned trees and/or buildings, by the way. The monster didn't last too much longer after that, very soon afterward then being killed and eliminated by the two sailor-suited girls who were still standing well enough here near the two obvious civilians here.

After the monster was no longer anywhere to be seen at all, Motoko came to the two still-standing sailor-suited girls here, and asked who they were. One of them introduced herself as Sailor Moon, and the other as Sailor Skyhorse. Sailor Moon said, "The other ones like me here are Sailors Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus," as she pointed to each of them in turn. "As for these other two, they are Naru Osaka and Reika Nishimura."

"What was that thing you just were attacking then, Sailor Moon?" asked Motoko.

"I don't know exactly what it was, miss, and where it came from, but quite obviously it isn't from anywhere here on Earth, it seems to me. I somehow suspect that it may not be the last of its kind that we'll ever see here on Earth for quite some time indeed, as well. May I ask your name, then?"

"Motoko Aoyama. And the others you see attending to your comrades-in-arms are associates of mine, for that matter," Motoko said, as she stole several brief glances at her fellow tenants and their manager here.

"I see."

All of a sudden, Mega-Keitaro came over to Motoko and crouched down near her, whispering briefly in her left ear. Motoko listened for a brief moment or two to the mecha, and said, "My associate Kaolla would like to converse with you for a bit, if she may, soon. And she also wonders where your frequent associate Tuxedo Kamen now is, for that matter, Sailor Moon."

"He was unable to come to the fight, unfortunately. He had something else he had to attend to in his civilian life, and so, therefore, he was unable to make it here easily enough, Motoko."

"Would you mind if I asked why he didn't show?"

"Because what he had to attend to was very important, to the degree that it might possibly affect his own future to a quite considerable enough degree. And I didn't want him to forget to attend to it, if he could possibly avoid doing so, when it might be the difference between losing at least one of his dreams or being able to fulfill at least one of them in his own life."

"Is that partly why Sailor Skyhorse is here, then?"

"Yes. She was around me when he told me of his civilian situation that I just told you about here, Motoko. So she agreed to assist me in our next fight, whenever it might be, seeing as he wouldn't be able to himself, for whatever reason or reasons he'd not be able to do just that, somehow, in fact. And she often assists us even when he's able to fight alongside the rest of us Senshi and/or our various allies, for that matter."

"So Tuxedo Kamen has a civilian identity. I wonder what it is."

"I can't tell you yet, if ever. For you're not one of us just yet, if you'll ever be."

"I take it each of you have civilian identities of your own?"

"Sure we do. But I can't actually tell you ours just yet, for we hardly know you, Motoko," said Sailor Moon. "Now if you'll excuse us, we have to see that our friends get to where they're going well enough, if we can."

"Will I see you around again someday, then, Sailor Moon?"

"You never know. You just might, Motoko. Now I really think that we'd all best leave you here, if you don't mind. Come on, Senshi, let's go," said Sailor Moon, once she saw well enough that her previously-smacked comrades were once again standing and moving around well enough here.

The other Senshi needed no further urging to come to her side, and gather around her here. "Sailor Moon, you did good," said Sailor Mars. "That monster sure packed a real punch, though. I think I'm going to want to take it easy for a while here, for once."

"Are you okay, Sailor Mars?"

"I'll be fine, in due time, I think, Sailor Moon. I mean, this monster that we all just fought here wasn't evidently quite as strong as the Dark Kingdom's youma were some time ago. Or at least it didn't appear to be at least that strong to me, if not even stronger than any or all of them, anyway. I really do hope, though, that we'll all somehow actually be able to do at least well enough against others from their particular bunch of sentient beings in the future, of course. And, yes, I very strongly suspect that there will be many others like them showing up around here, for that matter. So many, in fact, that we may very well indeed need many more allies on our own side of things in order to fight them quite well enough, if I'm not too mistaken here."

"We just got done with Queens Beryl and Metallia, and their Dark Kingdom, and we're likely not going to get much recovery time to recuperate from fighting them before we have to begin to take on our next enemy? Oh, great. Just how I wanted to spend my summer, having to battle still another evil force of some yet-unknown kind!"

"Well, at least you'll have us to fight alongside you from the start of this fight with them this time, unlike when you first awakened as a Senshi before most, if not all, of the rest of us, Sailor Moon," said Sailor Mercury.

"I suppose so, Mercury. Hopefully we'll not run into too much trouble soon enough, though, in the meantime."

"Don't count on it, Sailor Moon. If they're going to be after what I think they're going to be after, then I don't think that we'll easily be able to avoid it for a long enough time," said Sailor Jupiter.

"Why can't they just leave this world alone?"

"That's what evil forces enough like the Dark Kingdom are going to do, if they possibly can, Sailor Moon. If they can't get what they want immediately, they'll go through anyone and anything they can, until they get what they want, if at all possible. At least the Dark Kingdom most likely will never be able to rise again, and try to destroy us like they destroyed our cherished Moon Kingdom at the end of the Silver Millennium like they did," said Sailor Venus.

"When will the fighting ever stop forever, then?"

"When the Messiah finally puts an end to all war anywhere at all in the Universe forever, Sailor Moon," said Sailor Skyhorse, just a few somewhat brief seconds later, at most. "Only then, in truth, will peace reign eternally in it."

"Then we might be able to find peace from our pain caused by us often having to take sentient life in our lives against our wills?"

"Yes, if you make it to Heaven, you should be able to, I'm quite sure."

"I hope we all make it there, then, of course. In the meantime, I suppose we'd all best get out of here now, girls, if we can."

"Of course, Sailor Moon."

"See you around, then, perhaps, Motoko," said Sailor Moon, as she and the others then with her quickly left the area for at least a little while, for all the obvious reasons here. Kaolla soon sent Mega-Keitaro back to wherever she'd gotten him from earlier, for that matter, in fact.

After the Senshi and their two civilian companions then departed the scene here, Keitaro and the others soon joined Motoko near where she was then sitting on a nearby bench. Keitaro asked, "Are you all right, Motoko?"

"That monster was quite huge, Urashima. Just where did it come from, exactly, then?"

"I have no idea, to be totally honest here, Motoko. But Kaolla seems to have a sneaking suspicion about it, somehow, just the same, here," said Keitaro.

"What do you possibly know about it, Kaolla?" asked Motoko.

"Very little, if anything, to tell you the truth. But it seemed to have a rather strange marking on its body in at least one place, if not more than one. The marking or markings then in question here might possibly have looked at least partly, if not entirely, like at least one, if not more than one, black crescent moon with the points of each such moon facing downward somewhere on its body. It made some rather strange noises as several other similar enough beings were near it, along with any number of humans or humanoid-like beings, it now seems to me here. Come to think of it, several of those other beings were possibly amongst those who actually attacked me and several other people earlier today in the attack I told you all about earlier. Though I can't be all that sure about such things well enough here. Or at least not at the current time, anyway, for some reason or reasons I can't really think of at the moment, everyone."

The seven of them soon made their way back up to the Dorm, and arrived back in its living room in time to hear a few knocks on the Dorm's front door. Keitaro soon went to the front door, and asked the people who were then there, "What do you want?"

"Is this the Hinata Dorm, by any chance?" asked a certain girl with buns in her hair. "My mother said there was a Dorm somewhere around here with a hot springs on its grounds. And we and my friends were looking for that place, for we were planning to spend some time at the Dorm during our summer vacation from school, if we could actually do so well enough."

"Yes, as a matter of fact it is. May I ask who you are, then, miss?"

"I am Usagi Tsukino, and these are my friends Ami Mizuno, Rei Hino, Makoto Kino, Minako Aino, Naru Osaka, Reika Nishimura, and Sylvia Wakefield," answered Usagi, as she introduced each girl besides herself in turn to Keitaro.

"I see. Well, then, you might as well come in, Tsukino-tachi. We've been expecting you since I told my tenants about your plan to come here earlier."

"It won't be a bother, seeing as it's so late at night now, Urashima-san?" asked Usagi.

"No, Usagi, it's not," whispered Keitaro to her in a voice so low only Usagi and Ami could currently hear it well enough, all of a sudden. He then said, aloud, for the benefit of the rest of Usagi's companions, "No, it's no bother at all, girls. Please do come in, and let's go meet my tenants, if that's all right with you all here."

Moments later, then, Usagi and her seven companions were inside the Dorm's living room as well, for that matter. It was now just about 11:45 at night, in fact. Keitaro introduced each of them to his tenants, and vice versa. The fourteen young women conversed for about ten to fifteen minutes with each other before finally deciding how to then spend the rest of the night and at least part of the early morning in and around the Dorm's grounds with each other here, and the sleeping arrangements for them all on the current night.

Reika and Makoto soon bunked up with Kitsune, Minako and Usagi with Shinobu, Rei with Mutsumi, Sylvia and Ami with Kaolla, and Naru Osaka with Naru Narusegawa, eventually. While Keitaro, of course, didn't have any new roommates here, for the obvious reasons. After the sleeping arrangements had been decided by the fourteen aforementioned young women, at least for the current night, Keitaro and they soon parted for the rest of it, not likely to see each other again here for at least the next few hours, quite naturally enough. And all fifteen of them were quite soundly asleep in their respective beds or sleeping bags not too long after that happened, for that matter. And so they slept.

* * *

Chapter Three will be up as soon as I can get it done quite well enough, people. I don't yet know just how it might actually go, story-wise, but I'll figure it out as needed here just as soon as I can, I know. I hope to have it up sometime by Christmas, though, if at all possible, in any case at all. Please stay tuned for further additions of chapters to this story, then, okay? In the meantime, everyone, please do seriously consider the possibility of any and/or all of you readers actually leaving me at least some reviews and/or comments of the previously-requested kind in the very near future, if and whenever possible. Until later, then, I bid all of you farewell, and wish you all well, as best as I can. This is TUS signing off now, then, of course!


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